The very quick version...
I grew up and graduated from Thomas A. Edison High School in Alexandria, Virginia. Immediately after graduating from high school, I attended Virginia Tech where I received a B.S. in Applied Mathematics. I worked on my undergraduate research with Dr. Ezra Brown in the Math Department and Dr. James Sochinski in the Music Department on modelling musical systems. I also wrote a computer program that could "play" the Lorenz Attractor (using the three dimensions in 3-space instead as pitch, volume, and duration of a musical note). I used MIDI to play the notes, and users could enter initial conditions to "play" the Lorenz Attractor. In addition, I did extensive work to look at Bach fugues and examined patterns in the melody lines to determine relationships between the pieces.
While at Virginia Tech, I was also heavily involved in service activities as well as music activities. I was a violinist in the New River Valley Symphony and the Europa String Quartet. Immediately after graduating, I worked as a consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in Bethesda, Maryland. I married Jason Martin (also a VT grad) soon after graduation. While living in the Washington D.C. area and working, I played 1st violin with the George Mason University Symphony and the Prince George's Philharmonic Orchestra. I also played occasionally in a piano quartet (violin, viola, cello, piano) and piano trio (violin, cello, piano). After 4 years of consulting and living the corporate life (!), I decided to come to Cornell University to pursue my Ph.D. in
Applied Mathematics. I graduated with my Ph.D. in August 2005 and currently have a nontenure-track professorship job in the Mathematics Department. I did lots of cool things as a graduate student at Cornell, the best of which was giving birth to a beautiful baby boy in 2003. You can figure out my other interests by exploring this webpage.